‘I don’t want tea.’ She took the cup and immediately set it aside. ‘I want to know what your coming to Binboona to spy on us has to do with running drugs.’ The moment the words left her mouth, she made the connection and her hands flew to her mouth. ‘It was me, wasn’t it? You thought that Gerry – that I . . .? That’s why the police came that day. And then you turned up, after.’ Her eyes went wide as she remembered.

‘Burns got impatient. He wasn’t willing to wait. Once he’d got you offside, though, he had to leave it to me. He came back only because we couldn’t think of any reason for me to have those photos you looked at.’

‘I was going to refuse,’ Tilly said contemptuously, ‘only you turned up to play the good cop and convinced me to do it. That was well orchestrated, I must say.’

He said quietly, his words confirming her guess, ‘I haven’t liked deceiving you. And strictly speaking, I’m not a cop. But Customs play an important role in the country’s defence, so I’m not ashamed of the job I do. And in fact, I’d exonerated you of any involvement only a day or two after we met.’

‘So why were you still searching? Matt said you were in the sheds and you can’t have suspected Sophie of importing drugs, for God’s sake!’

‘Somebody is, Tilly.’ He looked at her across the blackened quartpot, and she absently picked up her own cup and took a sip. ‘But it’s not just Binboona we’re checking out. There’s a young Stock Squad copper in the camp at Spadgers Creek, keeping an eye out there. They have coastal access too, so theoretically the drugs could be run ashore on their country. Somebody at the station could be involved. That, by the way, is classified information, so I’m trusting you to keep it between us – all right?’

‘I suppose,’ she muttered. ‘Did you say you had sugar?’

‘Here.’ He reached behind him and handed her a lidded tin. ‘There’s a spoon it it. So do the other rangers know about me being a ring-in yet?’

‘Not yet. I only rang the uni yesterday while they were all out, then Luke and Sophie came rushing back for the ladder, and everyone was so upset about the birds it didn’t seem important—’

Connor looked bemused, his tea forgotten. ‘Ladder?’

She told him about the birders and the rescued chicks, and he nodded.